OneFour gang: Alleged associate Benjamin Falefoou faces court
A senior policeman has called on the courts to help smash western Sydney gang OneFour. He was speaking as an alleged associate faced court for his part in a wild footy brawl.
Blacktown
Don't miss out on the headlines from Blacktown. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- OneFour gang associate admits to brawl at Mt Druitt Islander footy match
- OneFour rapper faces riot charge after Mt Druitt pub brawl
A senior police officer charged with tackling western Sydney gangs has called for the courts to help shut down the notorious OneFour street gang.
Senior Sergeant Craig Pullen slammed the gang, stating members have no respect for the public and incite and participate in violence.
“The courts and police need to shut these groups down. How do we do that? Through non-association orders,” he said. “We need to make sure these groups get disbanded permanently.”
He was speaking before Mt Druitt Local Court on Thursday during the sentencing hearing of Benjamin Falefoou who is an alleged OneFour gang associate.
Last year the 22-year-old pleaded guilty to affray for his part in a wild brawl in front of shocked spectators at a community football game on October 5,
Two men suffered serious injuries at the Pacific Islander football match in Mt Druitt.
The brawl is among a growing number of incidents of gang violence to take part in public places around western Sydney, including Parramatta, Auburn and Merrylands since 2018.
“This is three o’clock in the afternoon,” Snr Sgt Pullen said in court. “This is a football game. This is what they do. They turn up and start violence.”
He added: “These groups don’t care about anyone else apart from their social media status and the only way we can put a stop to this is enforcing these non-association orders.
“The greatest concern is they have no respect for the public.”
He added before court: “We now have this music group OneFour, they’re a hip-hop band and in the words in their music, they incite violence in the outer west.”
Snr Sgt Pullen is part of Strike Force Imbara, which formed last year to combat rising violence between gangs in the outer suburbs.
He argued in court Falefoou should be hit with a non-association order, which would prohibit him from contacting anyone with links to the gang.
He said cutting off contact between gang members was vital to their demise.
The defence, however, argued against the order, which would prohibit Mr Falefoou from contacting anyone with links to the gang.
“There’s at least 100 people on the list,” the defence said.
“More than half of these people are people he doesn’t know. It casts too wide a net for my client and he would have to move out of the area not to associate with them.”
Falefoou’s lawyer said he was not part of the OneFour gang.
Magistrate James Gibson said he would consider ruling against the full list and instead only prohibit Falefoou from contacting anyone mentioned in the police facts.
“Any violence by gang members should be prosecuted. But the difficulty you have here today is there is no evidence linking all of these names to the gang,” Mr Gibson said.
“Apart from (Falefoou’s) actions on the day, there is no other evidence linking him to the gang.
“I’m against you on the list of 100 names.”
The matter was adjourned for a hearing to determine the terms of the non-association order on March 27.